Serena’s research focuses on the management and maintenance of the ever-increasing volumes of geographic information and the challenges of making the information available and usable. The research is of an interdisciplinary nature, mainly in geoinformatics and computer science. The concept of an SDI (the collection of people technologies, policies and institutional arrangements for facilitating the sharing and use of geographic information) underlies most of my research. My research contributes to understanding and improving SDI practice and theory. Specific research foci are address data, standards, open principles, geoinformatics education and geovisualization.

Serena chairs the ‘Commission on SDIs and Standards' and is a member of the 'Commission on Open Source Geospatial Technologies' of the International Cartographic Association (ICA). Under her leadership, CGIS joined the ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS Lab Network and the 'Geo for All' initiative. 

Serena actively participates in international geographic information standardization efforts through the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) technical committee ISO/TC 211, Geographic Information/Geomatics, and nationally through the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) technical committee SABS/TC 211, Geographic Information. As chair of the Programme Maintenance Group (PMG) in ISO/TC 211 she coordinates efforts in the committee to ensure harmonization and consistency of standards and alignment with changing requirements and technological developments. She led the ISO 19160-1, Addressing Part 1: Conceptual model, project and participates in the development of additional parts of ISO 19160. She was also the project lead for SANS 1883, Geographic information Addresses, published in 2009. 

Currently, she is represents academia on two statutory bodies, the South African Geomatics Council and the South African Committee for Spatial Information (CSI), which coordinates the implementation of the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure.

• GMC 110 - Cartography (2017-present)
• GIS 701 - Research methods (2016-present)
• GIS 702/UNI 792 - GIS project (2011-present)
• GIS 703/UNI 791 - GIS professional practice (2011-present)
• GIS 120 - Introduction to Geoinformatics (2012-2016)
• COS 787 - Spatial databases (2009-2016)
• COS 326 - Databases systems (2007-2010)
• COS 151 - Introduction to Computer Science (2009-2010)
• COS 130 - Introduction to programming (2006-2008)
• VRS 780 - Distributed systems (2006-2008)
• COS 333 - Programming languages (2006)